Friday, September 19, 2008

A Big, Fat, Political Wedding

Last night, Oren and I were invited to attend the wedding of Oren's former boss' daughter. We actually have three weddings to attend this week, so this one did not particularly stand out to me as anything special when we RSVPed that we would attend. Yesterday was a crazy day for both me and Oren work-wise, so around 9:00pm, I got dressed up for the wedding, hopped in a taxi, picked up Oren on the other side of town where he had just left a campaign gathering for his candidate, and we rushed off to the wedding. When we were almost there, the traffic came to a standstill as a motorcade passed us by. Jokingly, I asked Oren if was Tzipi Livni's motorcade since she was just elected to be the new Prime Minister yesterday, and he replied, in complete seriousness, that it was actually Ehud Olmert's motorcade (aka the guy almost done being Prime Minister). I then, again, jokingly asked if he was coming to the wedding too and Oren, again in all seriousness, replied that yes, he was probably heading there as well. It was then that I realized that Oren worked for this guy whose daughter is getting married when the guy was the Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister's office under Ariel Sharon, and since Olmert was the Deputy Prime Minister when Sharon was PM, it made a lot of sense that Olmert would attending and it made me wonder who else might be there...

So, we followed Olmert into the wedding, where he was whisked off to his roped off table in the corner that was surrounded by security guards. He later, on his way out of the wedding, said hello to Oren and I. He pretended to remember me from when we met last January and Oren took the opportunity to let him know that he has never been happier than since he left the government. Olmert seemed to appreciate that.

About 30 minutes later, I was sitting with a friend when I saw a nice looking old man walking towards us. I starred at him trying to figure out how I knew him, when I turned to my friend and asked "Is that Shimon Peres?" She confirmed that it was, in fact, the President of Israel walking around the wedding reception, and he then proceeded to come over, take my hand, and wish me a "Shana Tova" (Happy New Year). I wished him a "Shana Tova" back, and that was that.

After I got over the shock of Israel's President wandering around at someone's wedding, Oren and I decided it was time to go home. We were just about at the door when Oren noticed Tzipi Livni had just arrived to the party. This was by far the most exciting sighting of the evening, as I am a huge fan of hers and am so excited that she just was elected to be Prime Minister. She knows Oren from when he worked for Sharon, so we went over and said hello, and Oren introduced us, explaining to her that it was my first time voting in Israel and that I voted for her. She was genuinely excited about this, and I then proceeded to gush about what an honor it was to meet her and how excited I am that she is the new Prime Minister and that I know she will do a fantastic job, etc, etc. Probably a little bit much, but I was just so excited to meet her!

So, overall, it was a big, fat, political wedding- it's going to be difficult for the other two weddings this week to measure up!